State data to be used to limit child gamers in China

Image copyrightReutersImage caption Honour of Kings is popular with children and is China’s top grossing mobile game

Chinese technology giant Tencent is introducing tough new rules to identify under-age gamers, amid a crackdown on gaming addiction in the country.

From mid-September it will introduce a real-name registration system for its Honour of Kings games, which will be linked to China’s public security database.

It will identify children and restrict the time they spend on the game.

The move is the first of its kind in the world’s largest gaming market.

Tencent, which also operates the Chinese social network WeChat, posted its first profit decline since 2005 this summer, blaming the drop on tighter regulation, specifically around the approval of licences that allow companies to make money from new mobile games.

Honour of Kings is a hugely popular multi-player role-playing battle game based on Chinese historical figures.

It is specifically designed to play on a mobile platform, which has added to its popularity because many young gamers do not have access to a games console or PC at home.

The app is free to download but players have to pay to upgrade their characters and costumes in order to advance to the next level.

The game was criticised last year for its addictive nature in government-owned newspaper People’s Daily, which called it “poison” and a “drug”.